Holy acronyms batman!

Well, I got the bug today to play Star Wars Galaxies. I've missed it so much over the last year. SWG was the second MMORPG I ever played, but it is my all-time favorite. I've wanted to go back for a while, but the thought of having lost so much of my character and possessions with the Combat Upgrade (CU) and the New Game Experience/Enhancement (NGE) had kept me away. Finally, I couldn't stand it any longer and reactivated.

I know what some of you are thinking... Don't do it! Don't give in, SOE is evil, they ruined the game and all that jazz. Well, after 6 hours of playing a new character (Jedi since I've never done it before in SWG) and a little time poking around with my old characters I gotta say I have been pleasantly surprised and have actually had quite a bit of fun. Yes, I did use the "F" word.

I'll just come right out and say it. I actually like the NGE. The new professions are well defined, there are talent trees called Expertise (ala WoW) that allow you to further customize your character. I haven't explored them much as I'm only level 14, but at first glance they appear to have quite a bit of variety in them.

My character build thus far is a Human Jedi with a penchant for Force Spark and the Dark Side. I've begun helping the Empire when given a choice as my character (Sokhar To'rath) has a lifelong goal of kneeling before the Emperor.

One surprising thing I discovered was that my character on Bria (formerly a Master Carbineer, near-Master Bounty Hunter) was still there with all of my possessions in my house. It had been 16 months since I last logged in and the house was still standing!!! I had to choose a new profession, but the things that mattered most to me, primarily the Composite Armor and the decorations for the house (paintings, sculptures, furniture, and even veteran rewards) were still in place.

However, in order to give the NGE a fair evaluation and because I've never been a Jedi in the game, I created a new character on Valcyn. Some things that so far after 6+ hours seem better than the game pre-NGE:

1) Loot is WAAAAAAAAAAAAY better. I've found all kinds of nice things so far including schematics, blueprints, stims, buffs, weapons, and lots of things to sell to junk dealers. Sure, the prices you get from the junk dealer aren't that great, but after a few missions I probably got a few thousand credits out of it. Not too bad and it does add up. And it really is nice to find real loot.

2) Quests. Holy cow I cannot even begin to express how impressed I am by this aspect of the game. 14 levels and I haven't yet touched a mission terminal. Pre-NGE mission terminals were the first thing you did with a new character. Now, I've been involved in quests the entire time. Yea, many are kill or collection tasks, but they do have a good story that helps mask it. And there is some interactivity (slicing data terminals, timers, etc).

For example, I was given a 4 minute timer to destroy some battle droids protecting a moisture harvester near the Lars' Homestead. I was incapacitated and failed the mission. The harvester blew up. Pretty cool I thought.

There are also quests that take you into quasi-dungeons, and that is nice at an early level. Underground facilities or even caves with tasks such as killing bosses, slicing terminals, finding out information by interrogating people. Not bad SOE, not bad!

One thing I have noticed is that on Bria in Theed in the afternoon there were 20 or 30 people in the main courtyard. That is more than there were when I quit the game. And there were people hanging out in Mos Eisley too on Valcyn in the afternoon and evening, both outdoors, in the bank and in the cantina. All of that bodes well for the future.

A few more things I should comment upon that are different. The biggest, of course, is combat. Its now click-based to attack though there is an auto-attack feature. You can no longer queue your abilities like you used to, instead you "fire" them at the appropriate time in combat. Some appear to be linked, they have recharge timers, and some take longer than others to execute. But it does keep you on your toes! So far it seems fast-paced and is entertaining.

The designers at SOE have simplified the HAM (Health, Action, Mind) system greatly from what it used to be. Now you have Health and Action, the other statistics merely support those. This is a great improvement in my opinion because it allows you to boost the things that matter to you for your profession and you don't have to worry about being "mind-shot" from 100 meters.

Now, don't get me wrong. There are some downsides. You can't multi-class like you used to and that is unfortunate. I rather enjoyed having some crafting and some adventuring skills. And the performance has not improved noticeably. It lags in town, lags out in the wilderness when loading world objects (houses, structures, etc) and monsters fail to load as you go zipping by on your vehicle. I have had some trouble de-selecting targets and keep having to press escape (it doesn't transfer targets very well), though I'm not sure if thats the game or me.

So, that is my initial impression. I chose to go back to the game with an open mind, evaluate it the new changes for what they are, without comparing them directly to the old game, and what I have found is a entertaining and well done new experience that so far makes me think that my $14.99 was well spent. Way to go SOE!